


It’s Our Team Now

by GStarshine



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Extremis Tony Stark, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Protective Tony Stark, Tony Fixes things, Tony Stark Has A Heart, and people, but its not a focus, not team Cap friendly, still kinda salty over CW, they'll show up a eventually so keep that in mind
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-06-19 02:36:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15500439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GStarshine/pseuds/GStarshine
Summary: If there was one thing Tony Stark hated, it was seeing something broken but being unable to fix it. It was the closest thing to OCD he had. Just staring at something broken made his fingers twitch for a tool and his mind whirl with possibilities to fix it, to make it better. Honestly, it was annoying sometimes, the longest he had ever held out on trying to fix something was a day and by the time he had started his hands were shaking and he was sweating like a sinner in church. It was ridiculous.It also didn't stop at inanimate objects.akaTony has a thing for taking in strays, the last ones trashed the house and ran away but that's not going to stop him from trying again.





	1. Raven's Aborted Dive

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Tony Stark is Not a Supervillain (But his Poker Group All Are)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10572177) by [DaughteroftheSilverMoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaughteroftheSilverMoon/pseuds/DaughteroftheSilverMoon). 



> Hello Everyone! 
> 
> I've had this one knocking about in my head for some time and finally wrote it out!
> 
> This currently has nine chapters but if you guys give me good ideas I may add to it.
> 
> To keep up the suspense, I will not put up the characters in the tags until I release the chapter that has them. :)
> 
> Also, the title comes from that one House of Mouse special where the villains take over. Thought it was appropriate.
> 
> Enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tony finds a curious Raven

If there was one thing Tony Stark hated it was seeing something broken but being unable to fix it. It was the closest thing to OCD he had. Just staring at something broken made his fingers twitch for a tool and his mind whirl with possibilities to fix it, to make it better. Honestly, it was annoying sometimes. The longest he had ever held out on trying to fix something was a day, by the time he had started his hands were shaking and he was sweating like a sinner in church. It was ridiculous.

 

It also didn't stop at inanimate objects.

 

No, Tony, despite what his degrees said, had a special flair for fixing people. For taking someone broken and putting them back together. Sure sometimes it backfired (a certain team of ungrateful superheroes turned terrorists comes to mind) but a lot of the time it was rewarding for both him and the person involved. A small but noticeable percentage of his company was made up of individuals like this, individuals who were fixed and bettered by Tony Stark.

 

So it is no surprise to Tony that he veered off course during his patrol of the city when FRIDAY alerted him to a jumper on the Brooklyn Bridge.

 

Sure any hero worth their salt would go to stop the jumper but the second the person was identified as an individual Tony was likely going to attempt to fix, Tony ordered, "Initiate Protocol: Stray Cat." The protocol would identify the person in question and create Tony a report on them before obtaining clothes, hygiene products, standard tech, and readying the guest room in the penthouse. As the Brooklyn Bridge came into sight the very first of the information FRIDAY had found popped up on Tony's HUD. His eyebrows rose as he read but he didn't stop.

 

After all, a person was a person...no matter how many government watch lists they were on.

 

Tony came to a hover just off to the side of the raven-haired, pale-skinned woman who was edging toward the drop in front of her. Her face was a potent mixture of grief and anger and pain and honestly, Tony could already feel his tendencies kicking in. "Now what is a pretty lady like you doing in a place like this?" Tony asked, his helmet relaying the words with a slight mechanical edge.

 

Instantly the woman jumped backward and pressed herself against the metal behind her, "Stay back!"

 

"Whoah there. It's alright." Tony said, trying to be soothing. He retracted his helmet so the woman could see him, "You know bungee jumping off bridges usually requires the bungee to be fun."

 

The woman frowned, "What?"

 

Tony waved his hand at the drop, "You've not seen those crazy videos online? Of people bungee jumping off bridges and then just dangling? I'll be honest, I never really saw the appeal."

 

The woman blinked several times before a scowl settled on her face, "I know what you're doing. I'm still jumping Stark." She snarled.

 

"Now why would you want to do that?" Tony asked, not responding to the hostile tone.

 

The woman took a shaky breath as she eyed the edge again, "I...I used to be something amazing. Something great. They took it from me! Left me like this! Worthless! I'm nothing now! Nothing!" She drew in in herself, "And he left me. Now that I'm not special he left me, let me be taken. I'm no good to anyone. When they took what made me me I lost my cause, lost the one I loved, the one who I had chosen over my own brother." Her voice was getting tighter, "I just...I'm done." She stepped closer to the edge, "I just want to be done."

 

"You don't have to be blue to be amazing Raven," Tony said gently.

 

Her head whipped around to look at him, fear showing in her face now, "You know who I am?"

 

"You are Raven or Mystique depending on the current company." Tony tilted his head, "Which do you prefer?"

 

"Is that why you’re here?" She asked, "To take me in? Can't you just leave me alone? I won't take up a prison cell like this!" She cried almost hysterically.

 

"Easy, I'm not taking you to the police. I was actually thinking about the tower." Tony said.

 

"Why?" She asked, her eyes hardened, "To study me?" She snarled.

 

Tony lifted his hands as much as he was able without veering in the air, "Whoa there, I don't know if you've noticed but I'm an engineer. I don't do squishy sciences. Not if I can avoid it. So studying you is off the table." He gave her an open smile, "I was planning to just get some pizza."

 

She blinked, "Pizza." She deadpanned.

 

Tony nodded seriously, "Pizza after Wednesday patrol is a tradition. Want to join me for some?"

 

She looked at him as if he was insane before steeling herself and looking back at the edge, "No, I'm still jumping."

 

Tony flew in front of her, "Come on. For me. I need a buddy." He extended a hand to her, she eyed it distrustfully, clenching and unclenching her hands at her sides, "Just pizza. And if you still want to jump after pizza...well...the tower is higher than this bridge."

 

She frowned thoughtfully before hesitantly taking Tony’s hand, “Just pizza?” She asked softly.

 

“Just pizza,” Tony confirmed, pulling her over to him so her feet were standing on his boots, he wrapped an arm around her. “Hold tight.” He warned, his helmet closing back around his head. He started back toward the tower with his newest acquisition, smiling inside his helmet when he saw her eyes light up a little with the rush of the wind around them.

 

Not half an hour later, as they lounged on the floor of the penthouse with pizza and wine between them, Tony finally asked, “So what should I call you?”

 

She looked down at her lap, swirling her wine glass idly, “I don’t know. I am not either of the women I was. But I don’t have anything else to be.” She let out a dull laugh, “And after tonight it won't matter.”

 

Tony cocked his head with a hum, “That won't do. Just tonight or not you should have a name.” He scrunched up his nose and looked to the ceiling, “Something appropriate, something that will let you enjoy your last night..” he suddenly grinned and snapped his finger before grinning at her, “I’ve got it! Kia!”

 

She rolled her eyes, “I guess I could be Kia for a night.”

* * *

 

One night turned into two, which turned into three, which turned into a week, and soon a month. The newly named Kia found herself presented with excuse after excuse for her to put off her great leap until she didn’t need an excuse at all. A month after being brought to the Tower for ‘Just Pizza’, Kia accepted the position of Tony’s new PA, which the man had been offering since the second night when the most recent excuse had been “I need someone play fetch with DUM-E so he doesn’t use his fire extinguisher on my sensitive experiment”. Tony knew she needed to be needed, needed a cause, a purpose, and he was more than happy to give her that. He would help her if she ever wished to move on to something bigger but right now, taking care of him seemed to keep her spirits up and her mind focused.

 

Kia did really well in the position once she got past her death wish. She was straightforward and blunt enough not to take any of Tony’s crap, she forced him to stop for meals and actually tied him to his bed the first couple times he refused to go to sleep at a decent hour. She was also great to have with him when he had to go out. Despite losing her mutation, Kia still had years of battle experience and she had retained most of her flexibility, both had shown the first time some overzealous Team Cap supporter had tried to attack Tony when he was without his suit. Tony had gleefully made her customized weapons after that, she took them with the ‘thank you’ that Tony had been missing from his previous teammates and she had used them with a wild grin on the next asshole who tried to attack Tony.

 

Of course, Kia wasn’t sure what exactly she was supposed to do against sentient black goo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really had to play around with timelines here but this is after Mystique got shot with the 'cure' during the Brotherhood's attack on the prison truck.
> 
> According to Namberry, Kia, in one of the African languages, means 'season's beginnings' which I thought was appropriate for her new chance in life.
> 
> Flames will be used to roast me some marshmallows!


	2. Dumpster Diving for Venom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tony finds a space goop

The next time Tony’s tendencies struck, he and Kia were surveying one of Spiderman’s recent battle sites with the head of the cleanup crew. The rather dull man was talking numbers through thinly veiled hateful comments about ‘supers’ and Tony had honestly stopped listening after the second Spiderman bashing snipe. Kia was alternating between glaring at the man and letting her eyes rove over the battleground where Peter had collapsed a building and had succeeded in successfully dumping and damaging hundreds of steel pipes, like the worlds worse game of pick up sticks.

 

A movement caught Kia’s eye and she immediately pulled free her short sword and modified pistol, making the rambling crew leader shut up with a gulp. Tony wasn’t perturbed, he just raised an eyebrow, “What’s up K?”

 

“Movement under the pipes.” She said sharply, training her gun at the pile, “There!” She shot in the next second, sending the crew leader running and eliciting a frightened sounding hiss from the space between the pipes she had just hit. Tony frowned and started forward only to be stopped by the flat of Kia’s blade on his chest, “Don’t be an idiot Tony! Who knows what's over there!”

 

“K, it sounds scared.” Tony pointed out, “What if something is stuck under there?”

 

Kia rolled her eyes, “I’ve met Peter, he wouldn’t have abandoned this place if someone innocent was under there.”

 

“So there might be something not so innocent.” Tony pointed out.

 

“Exactly!” Kia hissed, “So stay away from it!”

 

“What if someone else finds whatever it is and causes more damage with it!” Tony protested. He used Kia’s split second of consideration to move around her blade and jog over to the pile of pipes to the sound of her curses. Tony carefully moved pipes out of the way, feeling Kia come up right behind him to watch warily as he finally unveiled a small space underneath the pipes.

 

Huddled in the small corral created by the metal pipes was a tiny pulsating mass of oily black goo.

 

“Venom.” Tony identified, Kia brought her gun up swiftly but Tony stayed her hand, “Wait, Peter said the only thing that really works against it is sonic attacks. The gun will probably just make it angry.”

 

“Then how are we going to catch it!” Kia demanded.

 

“Do you have a-whoah!” Tony tried to back away as the blob suddenly shot forward by it extended tendrils and attached to his hand before he could get too far. Kia cursed and Tony just held his hand out as far away from his body as possible to examine the goo.

 

As soon as the frantic movement came to a tense stop, Tony was able to discern something curious.

 

Venom wasn’t attacking. It simply clung to Tony’s wrist and trembled.

 

Tony cocked his head curiously, “Hey little one.” He said softly, reaching out with his free hand slowly. “Easy there, buddy.” One finger made contact with the black goop and it pressed itself flat with a high pitched noise. “It’s alright.” Tony soothed, petting the goop gently.

 

“That’s very strange,” Kia mumbled over Tony’s shoulder, she narrowed her eyes at the black blob, "Peter said it was hostile."

 

"Well, it is an  _alien_ symbiote." Tony murmured softly, "It doesn't know anything about humans."

 

Kia frowned at Tony, "You couldn't possibly be suggesting what I think you're suggesting."

 

Tony rolled his eyes, "I'm just saying that Venom doesn't have any idea what would constitute a truly symbiotic relationship with a creature from this planet." Venom was slowly calming under Tony's petting, "Add in Peter's panic and Venom was probably pretty scared too. They probably clung even harder because of it, creating a cycle of fear."

 

"You are suggesting it." Kia huffed in exasperation, "Tony, how are you going to keep a pet alien goo?"

 

Tony grinned as he brought the symbiote closer, practically cuddling it to his chest. "I have a few ideas for that."

* * *

 

Venom's inclusion into the tower was a rather strange one, the first few weeks were filled with more ups and downs than a damn rollercoaster.

 

It took them a while to get used to one another. Tony found a way to feed Venom when they weren't attached to someone (who knew aliens liked Pedialyte). The trio also worked out a system of communication, Venom understood them from their time with Peter and they could get the gist of Venom's replies through hisses and squeaks (living with nonverbal bots had advantages).

 

A rather strange incident also led to them discovering Tony's immunity to the symbiote. It appeared that the Extremis in Tony's system, what he had used to heal and strengthen himself after Siberia, viewed Venom as something to be burned out of his body. Kia was similarly immune and they couldn't decide if it was left over from her mutation or because of the serum that locked it away. Either way, there was no one else that Venom was currently allowed to come in contact with and the excessive lectures the symbiote got for trying had the alien goo practically pouting.

 

It wasn't until the third week that they came up with a solution.

 

Kia had been returning from a bakery run in the early morning hours when she had heard whimpering. Investigating, she found a horribly mangled pitbull dying in an alley not three blocks from the Tower. The dog, obviously a victim of some abuse if not outright dogfighting, was a classic red furred male who, Kia could clearly see, was already down one leg and an eye. The rest of the dog was covered in scars and opened wounds, leaving the poor thing whimpering amid a garbage heap just waiting to die. Kia had called for Happy without hesitation. When Happy and Kia made it back to the Tower with the dog, they were met with Tony stumbling sleepily from his bedroom with Venom wrapped around his wrist.

 

Tony had barely begun to ask about the dying dog in his living room when Venom detected from Tony's wrist and lunged for the critically wounded animal.

 

What followed was slightly disgusting and yet...

 

Venom as a pitbull was a disturbing sight. The dog had bulked up a bit and it's fur had turned an oily black, the two most normal changes to occur. The dog's mouth was now a wide maw filled with jagged teeth and a long forked tongue. Venom had made up for the missing leg with a sort of tentacle-like limb that it either couldn't or wouldn't form into the shape of the other paws, leaving the new limb to function like an octopus tentacle. Venom had apparently not seen a need to replace the missing eye but the remaining eye had enlarged slightly and turned pure white.

 

Despite the strangeness of this, the symbiote _had_ managed to save the dog's life, healing his wounds completely (something Tony checked into as soon as he woke up fully). Considering that this had also calmed the symbiote down and stopped it from attempting to possess humans, Tony counted it as a win.

 

Venom became a normal sight around the Tower's residential floors. They became a well-loved, if slightly deranged, pet of sorts.

 

Their reintroduction to Peter was tense but happened all the same. With Tony translating and the more expressive features of the dog, Venom was able to apologize for scaring Peter. From that, the two developed a tentative understanding which evolved into a blossoming friendship which, in turn, evolved into the two giving Tony a heart attack as they went after criminals together. Spiderman could be seen running up the side of buildings with an oily black dog loping alongside him, extra long tongue flapping like a flag behind them. The Daily Bugle soon featured stories decrying both 'That Menace Spiderman' and his 'Monsterous Mutt Sidekick' with a picture of Spiderman mid-swing, holding a grinning Venom under one arm.

 

Despite their new friend, Venom did not forget about the one who had saved them. 

 

When not out saving New York with Spiderman, Venom could often be found snoozing at Tony's feet. They joined Kia in her quest to care for the inventor as well, sprawling across Tony's stomach to keep him in bed or bringing him food from the fridge. Venom and Kia also managed to get Tony outside, insisting that, since Venom was inhabiting a dog, they needed walks (apparently their crime-fighting didn't count). The walks became an almost daily thing, Venom retreating far enough into the pitbull that they just appeared to be a black-furred pitbull with three legs and one eye. As much as Tony griped, he enjoyed getting outside and soaking up some sunshine. He also, maybe, enjoyed watching Kia and Venom scare off people who tried to harass him.

 

Venom took Tony's safety just as seriously as Kia did, but they weren't sure how they were supposed to protect him from dangers that literally fell from the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> VENOM BOJANGLES! HAIL NIMROD!
> 
> Also, I think pitbulls were banned in New York for a time (in like 2011 or smth)? But then there was a Pitbulls and Parolees episode where a dog was adopted out to a couple in Manhattan so I think I'm safe.
> 
> Again, had to play with timelines a little bit. For this though, we are going with the Tom Holland Spidey having gone through the Venom storyline and this picking up right after it. Just so no one is confused.
> 
> Anyone got a guess for our next addition? Anyone? Bueller?


End file.
